Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires Brought to you by Rich-Jerks.com
Are You Ready? First of all, I would like to congratulate you for making the decision and commitment to get this success manual in order to start making some outrageously successful changes in your finances and in your life! By taking that first step, you have already separated yourself from the majority of people who only wish for their lives to change but never do anything about it. You are already giant steps ahead of the masses. So, you should feel really great about that! One thing I'd like you to understand is that this manual is not designed to be read passively. The only way you will gain any real benefit from it is by using the information, by applying the knowledge and the strategies to your own life. When you do that, there will be no limits to the level of success you can achieve. Your active participation will be required in various chapters. You will be asked to do some simple exercises which will provide you with the answers you can then use to be totally successful. So, please do the work required. It's really not difficult at all, and it will only take you a few minutes per day to do them. If you do that, I promise you that your wildest dreams will become your daily living, breathing reality. I should also warn you that if you don't use the information in this book, and if you don't apply what you learn, this book will be of very little use to you. Without action, knowledge simply turns into "useless information."
That’s the very first, and extremely important success lesson: Take action! So, the question I would like to ask you is this... Is being outrageously successful & wealthy, and turning your wildest dreams into reality, worth spending a few minutes a day on some simple exercises? If your answer is no, then I’ll be honest with you…this book is not for you. If your answer is yes, and you are willing to do a little work to get big results, then get ready for a thrilling ride!
The Success Formula: A Quick Overview I have found that planning for success is very much like planning for a road trip. It consists of a series of steps that need to be taken in the correct order. The challenge for most people is that they never take these steps in the right order. Others don't take all the steps, and others don't even know what all the steps are. (?) I remember saying to myself once, "Wouldn't it be nice to go visit someplace fun!" It was a nice thought and I was pretty excited as I thought about the possibilities that lay ahead of me. A year later, I realized that I hadn't taken that trip. The problem was obvious. My idea was too vague. I wasn't specific enough. That's the first step of the success formula: You have to pick a destination! You have to figure out exactly where you want to go. In other words, you have to clarify the result you’re after! You have to get specific and pick a place! Unless you do that, you'll never make it out of the house. If I don't know where it is I want to go, how would I ever get there, right? So, I did that. I got specific and I picked Las Vegas! ;-) A few more months went by. I was still not in Vegas. You guessed it. I didn't take the next step, which was to make a commitment! To pick a date! To make a decision! It was obvious that if I didn't make a firm decision by picking a date and committing to it, I wouldn't get anywhere near Vegas. So, I picked June 16th. Oh, now I was committed. I was getting somewhere. Next, I needed to figure out how to get there. I had to decide whether I was to drive or take public transportation, to leave in the morning or the evening. I had to buy a few things for the trip, I had to pack. I had to get my stuff together. And most importantly, I had to get maps so I could figure out which highways to take to get there with the least amount of difficulties! That's step 3: get prepared and have a plan! I was really cranking now! Everything was set. I was ready to go as soon as June 16th came around.
But everything could still fall apart unless I followed through on my plans. Making plans is just half the battle. You still have to get off your butt and go! Which is step 4: You have to follow through. You have to take action! And so I did that. I packed up and I went for it! Now, you and I both know that I still have some work to do after I get up and go, right? Coz you see, after you get in your car and start driving, your journey has just begun! You can't just sit in the car and hope to get to Vegas. No, no. You have to watch the road! You have to steer the car as the road curves. You have to watch for signs, stop lights, pedestrians, animals, kids and all that stuff. Oh, and let's not forget those crazy drivers out there! You definitely have to watch out for those guys! And lastly, if you make a mistake and take a wrong turn somewhere, you have to correct yourself and get back on track. That's step 5: You have to pay attention and adjust/ adapt as needed. So I did that too. I slowed down and sped up and stopped and turned and did everything else, as needed. A few hours, and several food and rest breaks later, I was in Las Vegas! Mission accomplished! Time to have some fun! And that's all there is to it. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Believe it or not, that's basically how you get from point A to point B with anything you do in life! Yes, these steps are very basic and I've missed some of the details, to be covered later, but those are the main steps. If you do nothing else but follow them in order, you'll usually reach your destination. Anyways, now that you are familiar with the big picture, let's start filling in the details. And don't worry, I'll give you all the details you'll need!
Next Stop: Financial Independence! Okay, as I've said earlier, the above steps can be used to succeed in any area of your life. The goal of this book, however, is to help you achieve financial success. That will be our main focus throughout the book. It is common knowledge that most of us will not get rich working for someone else. Most of us will not get rich working at a "job." That's just the way things are. If you haven't figured it out already, you should know that whenever you follow the majority of the people, whenever you do things the way the masses do it, you're pretty much doomed. Because, by following the masses, you'll get the same results as they are getting, which is usually pretty dismal. I learned the hard way that in order to get results similar to those of the rare 5% of the successful crowd, I would have to break away from the norms of the rest of the population and follow the methods of the successful 5%. I would have to unlearn what I knew and learn what the successful people were doing. That is exactly what this book will offer you. I will share with you all those things that the successful people are doing to create amazing successes, and to make money. I will also show you how you can get yourself to take action! To consistently follow through on your plans and reach your goals. I will reveal all the strategies and principles of the successful people so that it will be very easy for you to get the same kind of results they do. But…unfortunately, that's all I can do. In the end, you'll have to be willing to put this knowledge to use. In the end, only you can decide how successful you will be. You see, I can only offer you the tools. You have to use them. If you can make a promise to put these tools to use, to take the time out to apply the knowledge and principles I share with you, I can promise you that you will be successful!
The Fast-Track To Financial Independence So, what is the fastest road to financial independence? I'm willing to bet that you already know the answer. The quickest way to gain financial independence is to have your own business. A business where you call the shots, you set the hours, and you keep 100% of the profits! But you probably also know that for most people, starting a business is not that easy, is it? And if you already have your own business, you probably know all too well that it's not that easy to earn a consistent profit and make a living running your own business. Also, it’s often not as “fun” as some people make it out to be. Well, that's what this book is about. It is about giving you the tools and knowledge that few people know and use to make their business a success, to earn generous profits. Or, maybe you have your own business and you're already making good money from it but would like to make more money, and become more successful! Well, we'll cover that as well. Whether you have a successful business, an average business, or no business at all, the information in this book will help you be as successful as you'd like to be! So, if all it takes to be financially successful is to start and run your own business, how come everyone isn't doing it? And how come everyone isn't successful? Good question. One of the most important lessons we can learn from the successful business people is, they are not just running "a" business. They have chosen a business that allows them to do what they enjoy doing! They actually look forward to working on their businesses every day because they enjoy it. One of the main reasons most businesses fail is because the owners usually choose a business that they think would make them the most money. Most of the time, the owners don't enjoy doing the work that is required to run the business. And quite often, the owners actually hate doing the work. See, they took the first step, which is to pick a target, a destination, but they didn't pick a very good one. If I would have chosen to go to the Mojave Dessert instead of Las Vegas, you can bet that I would be hating it too when I would finally get there. I just know right now that I wouldn't enjoy the dessert. So, why choose to go there?
Sounds easy enough when you're picking a place to visit, doesn't it? But when it comes to choosing a business, most people don't realize that the same principles apply. So, after we've picked a business that we can enjoy working on, we are guaranteed to be successful, right? Not quite. See, even after I picked an enjoyable place like Vegas, I would still need the confidence, the courage, and the motivation to continue my journey till I got to Vegas. I would need to be mentally prepared for the journey to be able to handle the roadblocks, detours, accidents or other challenges that came my way. For many of us, this is where most of the problem lies when it comes to starting and running a business. And it is not a small problem either. You’ve got to have a burning desire for achieving your goals! You’ve got to want it with a passion. And, you have to decide to go for it. You’ve got to decide to not give up after the first few bumps and hurdles. The Mental Factor Over the years, I've come to find out that no one is really unsuccessful; they just haven't learned how to become successful yet. People are unsuccessful only because they haven't learned how to become successful yet. That's right...success can be learned! See, I believe that most people are unsuccessful not because they're lazy, or lack the skills or the intelligence. They just haven't learned to do what successful people do. Successful people do most things very differently than the rest of the population. They think differently, they perceive differently, and they sure as heck act differently. But most importantly, they have learned one very important truth: Success always starts in the mind. Actually, everything starts first in the mind. Every goal you have accomplished, every skill you have learned, started first as just an idea in your mind. If you were to even reach out to pick something up right now, you would first have to think about doing it. Success is no different. In order to be outrageously successful, you have to adopt a
"success mindset." And since I believe that you can be successful in every area of your life, including the area of finances, I like to call this mindset the "abundance mindset." Let's discuss this mindset further...
The Abundance/Millionaire Mindset So, what exactly is the real key to success? It is the frame of mind you keep on a consistent basis, it's what you focus on most, it's what you believe to be possible or not possible. It's your mindset. With the right frame of mind, humans can accomplish some pretty amazing feats, some of which would normally be considered impossible by most people. With the correct mindset, you can do just about anything! Successful people know that when you change your mindset, you change your reality - you change your world!
When you change your mindset, you change your world!
Successful people have a very unique mindset. Their beliefs and values are very different from those of other people. And they have adopted different habits that support their beliefs and helps them achieve their goals. As a result, successful people react differently to events, situations and challenges in their lives. They also react differently to what other people say or think. Only they decide what they are to focus on at any given time. Successful people ask the right questions! While most people look at a situation and ask "Why isn't this working?", the successful person will look at the same situation and ask "How can I make this work?" Where most people will wonder "Why is this happening to me?" the successful person will ask "What can I change in order to get what I want?" Successful people have a very different mindset. But here's what's interesting... Successful people are not born this way. They are different because they choose to be different, because they took the time to learn and adopt what was needed. They simply decided to change their lives because they didn't like what they had. They didn't like the kind of results they were getting, or the direction in which their lives were headed. So they decided to change it.
But they realized that in order to change their lives, they first needed to change their beliefs, values, and habits. They needed to change their mindset. And so they did. Anyone can choose to do the same! Anyone can decide to become successful. Anyone can obtain riches, optimum health, fulfilling relationships, and so on. Anyone can go out there and start searching for answers, for knowledge and skills that would make them successful. And since success starts first in the mind, anyone can choose to adopt new empowering beliefs & habits and let go of the old, limiting ones. Throughout this book, you will discover the knowledge, beliefs, views and insights that these highly successful people know and use to get whatever they want in virtually every area of their lives. You will also learn how you can imitate and integrate these powerful knowledge and beliefs into yourself and get the same kind of results.
For starters, here's an important principle for you to grasp... If you'd like to create a specific mindset, you have to rehearse it.
To create a mindset, you must rehearse it! For the most part, your mind learns through repetition. This is why any skill or activity can be learned through practice i.e. "repetition" - until it becomes automatic. It becomes automatic when your mind finally "gets" it. Whatever it is that you're doing repeatedly, either consciously or unconsciously, your mind picks up on it and assumes that you want to learn it. So, it starts paying attention to the repetitive task and begins to learn it better and better each time it's repeated. Primarily, everything is learned through repetition, through rehearsal. And, this is where most of us fall short. We don’t rehearse, we don’t repeat the lessons long enough for the mind to get it and make it a part of who you are. Most of us read a great success book one time and think everything will change. If only it were that easy. Successful people read certain books over and over till the book is falling apart! Why? Because they’ve learned the most important lesson about success. That, you have to continue to feed positive information and success advice to your brain every single day –
until it gets it! It doesn’t happen overnight. It can’t. Most of us have years and years of negative conditioning and beliefs to work through. That is why repetition is so important! More important than most other things. Rehearse a task - or even a mindset - until you master it.
What Do You Believe You already know that successful people think differently and have different beliefs. These beliefs that they have chosen to adopt play a big role in dictating their level of success. You see, beliefs are not necessarily what's true or factual in the real world. The power of each belief comes only from you, the believer of that belief; The strength of your belief depends on how strongly you believe it to be true. That means you can believe whatever you want to believe. As long as you believe it to be true, it will be true in your life. Consequently, you will attract events, experiences and people in your life to match your beliefs, which will in turn strengthen those beliefs. For this reason, it is very, very crucial to adopt only the beliefs that serve you and to let go of those beliefs that limit you. To be successful, you have to adopt similar beliefs. You have to think like successful people do; you have to believe what they believe. As you begin to adopt the beliefs of successful people, you will realize that a lot of what you learned growing up was not very useful. They were not the best advice, lessons, beliefs and habits we could have adopted and used. It's not your fault. The society we live in made it difficult for us to not pick up on these not-so-useful beliefs and habits. But, all is not lost. Beliefs can be changed. You've done it before. It takes courage to be willing to look at your current beliefs and then decide whether they serve you or sabotage you, whether to keep them or get rid of them. And yes, it takes consistent rehearsal and repetition, until your brain “gets it.” We've been conditioned from Day 1 to believe that money is not important. We have been conditioned to believe that wanting money is wrong and unethical. And yet the entire world seems to run on money.
It is one of the biggest myths known to man. And it's one of the main reasons why the majority of people are not wealthy. Money is simply a way to measure the amount of value you create for others. If you have a lot of money, that means you have created a lot of value in other people's lives. If you don't have the kind of money you'd like to have, that simply means that you have not yet produced the kind of value for others that you're capable of...or...you just went about it in a not-so-useful way. Money may not be the most important thing in life, but let's face facts here. Money is pretty darned important in this day and age. Money is how you support your loved ones. It's how you support yourself! It's how you buy food, water, shelter, clothing. It's how you pay the medical bills. It's how you help others! Are these not important things? Are your loved ones not important to you? Of course they are. And, if you feel that it's more important to contribute to others than to be rich, well guess what, when you have more money, you can contribute more! You can do much more for others and you can help a lot more people when you have more money.
The Power of Focus! Did you ever play with a magnifier as a kid? I remember trying to burn a hole through paper by allowing sunlight to pass through the magnifier and hit the paper. Direct sunlight didn't have this burning power. But when that same light was intensified and focused on to one point, using the magnifier, it would create intense heat, and sometimes fire! That's the power of focus. You can intensify your thoughts, intent, and actions the same way. We have touched on this subject before, and I’m sure you’ve heard it elsewhere before, but it deserves it's own section.
Whatever you focus on consistently will become your reality!
When you allow your mind to wander, when you allow it to focus on whatever happens to be in front of you, at random, you don't get much done. You don't move forward in any direction. But, when you consciously get yourself to focus single-mindedly on a specific goal, you create an amazing amount of productive energy. The right amount of focus can cut through any barrier and help you accomplish any task. Learn to shift your focus from the random, unimportant thoughts to what you want done. Your mind will only focus on what you allow it to focus on. Give your mind a direction to move towards, a target to shoot for, a goal to accomplish. If you give the ongoing events, and people around you, the power to choose your focus, they will jump to it! And they will control your destiny. Only you get to decide what you focus on. Not your environment, not your situation, and certainly not other people. How do you do this? Practice! Rehearse it. So, take back the control of your focus - and of your life.
Input Equals Output Just as focusing on what you want will get you what you want, focusing on what you don't want will only get you more of what you don't want. You've probably heard this before... You reap what you sow. If you plant corn, you will get corn. If you plant weeds, you will get weeds. And...if you don't plant anything, you will usually still get weeds! The weeds will grow regardless. Weeds don't need cultivation. It's the same with your mind. If you let positive, productive and creative thoughts in, you will get positive, productive and create results out. Similarly, if you let thoughts of fear, worry, and pain in, you will only create the same in your life. And…. if you don’t let anything in intentionally, there’s enough negative news and information around you to make you think negative anyway! (Weeds will grow regardless, remember?) Aside from what you internally focus on, you have to also be careful of what you focus on most on the outside! Guard your mind from the thoughts that enter into it! And guard it with your life! If you tend to watch or read the news a lot, beware! A lot of what is discussed on the news these days are "negatively charged." There's more bad news on the news than good news. It doesn't matter that it's happened to someone else. If you focus on the bad news enough, it will start to steer your thoughts, actions, and consequently your life, in the wrong direction. Our society seems to thrive on melodrama. Pain and suffering seems to be the way most people can connect with others. Be very careful what you're consistently focusing on. If you don't think you can live without the news, then find a balance between being informed and being drowned with the news.
You get to decide how much of the negative stuff you let into your mind. No one else should decide that. But if you don't take control, others will do it for you, especially the media!
Outline Your Daily Focus Let's face it...sometimes you will be forced to focus on negative things that you'd rather not focus on. When this happens, learn to catch yourself. And learn to stop yourself. Don't spend too much time focusing on the negative. As soon as you realize you're doing that, simply realign your focus. Direct your thoughts towards the positive, the productive, the creative. All it takes is a little practice. One of the best ways to prepare yourself in advance is to create a list of "daily questions" to focus upon. Make up a list of the important questions and thoughts you'd like to focus on as soon as you wake up in the morning. This will condition your mind to focus on things you want it to focus on instead of dwelling on random (usually negative) thoughts. Questions work really well because it allows your mind to get involved with the process! Just thinking positive thoughts can be difficult sometimes. But when you ask yourself questions, you trick your mind into paying attention and getting involved. Your mind has to shift focus!
Here are some examples of questions you can ask yourself: What do I want to focus on most today, and why? (Remember, the "why" is very important!) What am I absolutely committed to doing/accomplishing today, during the week, the month, etc.? What is most important to me in my life? What am I most grateful for in my life? (Remember, giving gratitude every day is an absolutely powerful way to attract wealth and success to you!)
Exercise:
Create your own set of daily questions by modeling the ones above. Feel free to use the ones given above as-is, and add your own as needed. Ask yourself these questions as soon as you get up in the morning, before any other train of thought sneaks in there. Whatever you start your day focusing on is usually what your mind will focus on most throughout the day. Do the same thing at night, just before you go to bed. Your mind is most impressionable at this time. Make use of it.
Wanting Verses Deserving So, we've said that in order to get what we want, you've gotta have a burning desire for it! You've also learned that you have to believe what successful and wealthy people believe if you are to ever have the kind of wealth and success as they do. The combination of the two can be very powerful. But if either one is missing, you won't go too far. Wanting something bad enough is very important if you are to ever achieve it. But if you don't believe you'll get it, then you're wasting your time. You have to realize something very important... Understand that in life, you will not get what you really want. You will only get what you believe you deserve.
You will not get what you want. You will only get what you believe you deserve.
What this means is that if you want something, you will do what is necessary to get it. But...if you don't believe that you deserve it, you will unknowingly and unconsciously sabotage your progress. Or you will get something and then mysteriously lose it again. So, even if you have a strong desire for achieving a goal, on some level, you will also simultaneously try to avoid getting that goal, if you don't feel you deserve it.
Do you truly believe that you deserve to be successful in every area of your life? If you do,
then you can be successful. If you don't believe this yet, you better start or else it may never happen. I'm sorry but there's just no way around this one. You have to believe that you deserve it. As you've learned earlier on, it doesn't matter what is true. It only matters what you believe to be true. When you start to believe that you deserve it, you begin to open yourself up to receiving what is rightfully yours. The truth is that we all deserve the very best of everything in life. That's just how life is. No one deserves more than you or less than you. The only difference is what they believe they deserve. Beliefs are very powerful indeed. They are what drive your thoughts, habits, actions, and consequently your life.
There is enough wealth, joy and abundance to go around for everyone, including you. And everyone deserves to have and enjoy it all, especially you! And the sooner you start believing this, the sooner you'll have what is rightfully yours.
Giving Verses Receiving Most of us are taught from an early age that giving is good and that you should give in order to receive. I agree with that one hundred percent! But here's the problem... We weren't told that we have to also be willing to receive just as openly and freely as we are taught to give! This is why many of us don't believe we deserve to be wealthy. Believing that you deserve success is a good start, but it's not enough. You have to be open to receiving it. You have to be willing to accept it when it comes your way. As we discussed earlier, there is enough wealth and success in this world to go around. So, you have to be open to receiving. When you are offered help, advice, assistance, and especially money for your services, take it! Accept it and feel good about it. That is the way it is supposed to be.
Look, I believe that you won't cheat people into giving you money. You will only offer the best service that you can. But when you are not open to receiving money or other forms of compensation in exchange for your services, you are sending a strong message to yourself and to others. The message is that your services are not of any value. This is one of the worst things you can do to yourself and to others. You see, life is all about balance. It's about flow and circulation. There must be outflow as well as inflow. The act of giving and receiving is similar to the process of blood pumping through your heart. If blood was only pumped out of your heart and never pumped in, the heart would soon run out of blood needed to pump out to your body, and you would die. If blood was only pumped in and never pumped out, the heart would get clogged up, diseased, and eventually burst, once again causing death. There has to be outflow as well as inflow! Eliminating one or the other will cause stagnation, disease, and eventually death. It's the same with giving and receiving, including the giving and receiving of money.
Giving and receiving go hand in hand. The absence of either one will cause stagnation and eventual death.
Because life is all about balance. Similarly, hoarding money will cause financial death. You have to invest it, you have to share it, you have to enjoy it. Giving all that you have and not being open to receiving will cause depletion and eventually death. It will make you a martyr. If you only give and never openly and freely receive, you are slowly killing yourself without realizing it.
All important change has to start from within. Only then will the results be seen in your reality. Realize from this day forth that receiving is just as important as giving. Every day, remind yourself to be open to receiving. Imagine all the success and wealth coming to you easily. Practice this everyday. It is vital to your success.
Recognizing Unlimited Resources
In order to be able to openly receive, you have to realize the truth. And the truth is...
The world is a place of abundance...where everyone can flourish, where everyone can be wealthy and successful.
The world is a place where everyone can benefit and win and be wealthy and happy. There is more than enough for everybody, including you. And by your winning and becoming wealthy, you're only helping others to win and become wealthy as well! Everybody wins. Nobody loses. All you have to do is start believing this truth and then be willing to reach out and grab what's rightfully yours.
Practice Gratitude One of the best ways to recognize and open up to receiving the abundance and wealth all around you is to first realize that you are already wealthy right now! I know it sounds a little crazy but bear with me for a second. You’ve probably seen at least one homeless person out in the streets, yes? Where do you think these homeless people sleep? Wherever they can find a warm place. Imagine what happens during winter! And, what about those who are missing a limb or two. Can you imagine what their lives must be like? I saw someone like this recently. And, I couldn’t help but realize how fortunate I was to have all 4 working limbs. I was very grateful for everything I had in my life at that moment. But, more importantly, I realized that there was so much more I could be doing, and so much more that I was capable of. You see, sometimes it's only when we notice how little others have that we can appreciate just how fortunate and wealthy we really are. It's only when we see how some people can
do so much more with so much less than we have that we realize how much we can do and how much we are truly capable of. Think of all the things at our disposal… the internet, libraries, roads and freeways, friends, family, loved ones, our limbs… One of the greatest things you can do to keep your mind focused on gratitude and wealth is to have, to remind you of how fortunate you are to have everything that you have right now. Because no matter how little you may think you have, there's always someone doing much worse than you are. There's always someone who has much less than you do, and in many cases, they're doing much, much more with what little they have than most of us ever will. When you shift your focus from what you don't have to just how much you're grateful for all that you do have, everything changes. You realize that you're already wealthy, and by focusing on wealth, your mind will associate pleasure to having more wealth and will work on creating more for you. The mind learns through repetition, remember? When you focus on gratitude, you teach your mind to believe that there's more than enough for everyone to enjoy. When you focus on gratitude, you forget about what's not working in your life and start to focus on the abundance and wealth that's already yours. This one step alone can create an avalanche of wealth in your life. It will drive your mind to do more, to attract more, to have more, and to share more!
Here's a simple exercise you absolutely must do: Take some time out every day, and throughout the course of the day, to stop and realize just how grateful you are for everything that you do have. Realize that you are already wealthy in so many ways. Because you really are! Start a 'gratitude list' and add to this list consistently. Believe me, once you start to focus on everything you do have, you will be amazed at just how much you have going for you right now. You'll be shocked at how big your list turns out to be. Here's just a little taste of what you can focus on: your health, food, shelter, clothing, electricity, running water, technology and all the things it has created, the fact that you're not living out in the streets, your family, relatives, friends and loved ones, your relationships, transportation, the free roads and highways, free libraries, the massive information resource of the internet, your job, your intellect, your desire to do and become more, and of course
this book ;-) (Hey, let's face it, some people will never learn what you are learning here. You gotta be grateful for that!) There's a lot more you can add to this list once you shift your focus on gratitude. I have a list that's 7 pages long and I continue to add to it so it continues to grow all the time. I am challenging you to beat that :-) Review this list every day and every night, and as often as possible. Train your mind to focus on gratitude, abundance, and wealth! Your mind is designed to duplicate and attract more of whatever it is you focus on most. Use the power of repetition to condition your mind to draw more abundance and wealth to you.
Why It All Starts In The Mind You may be asking yourself, "Why is it so important for everything to start in the mind? And why is it so effective to start there?" Here are two very important facts about your mind that you should know: 1. Your mind cannot tell the difference between an event that's real and an event that is "imagined." 2. Whatever picture or thought your mind focuses on most consistently eventually becomes your reality. I realize that for some people, these 2 learnings may seem a little silly or far-fetched right now, but hang in there. It will all begin to make sense soon. For most of us, our reality is defined only by what our five senses can process from what exists around us. What most of us don't realize is that these 5 senses can sometimes deceive us. We don't realize that they don't always give us the real picture, that there may actually be more to "reality" than we think. Have you ever wondered why you become scared while watching a scary movie? You know you are watching a movie that consists of a script from Hollywood, and a bunch of ridiculously high-paid actors. Yet you experience fear in your mind when you watch a scary movie. That fear then causes physical reactions; the hair on the back of your neck stands up, your muscles tighten up, your heart skips a beat.
Interesting, isn't it? Have you ever had a scary dream or nightmare that you were so sure was real that you actually woke up scared to death and drenched in sweat? Did you ever have a dream where you felt you were actually being choked to death or that you were falling off a cliff? If it was only a dream, why did it seem so real? Why did your mind believe it? And why did it proceed to cause physical reactions in your body? The answer is simple: Your mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. The Power of Imagination As you have learned earlier, your mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. In other words, if we can imagine something with enough energy and clarity, our mind will believe it to be real. It will not be able to differentiate between an experience that you've actually had from an experience that was purely imagined. We are very fortunate that our mind works this way; This is an extremely powerful tool we have at our disposal. So, how can we use this powerful tool? Let's find out... When people say they would "try" something, their minds would go back and review the databank of all the mental images from past experiences and then duplicate what was most common, i.e what it already knew how to do. And since most of us are always "trying" instead of "doing," what's most common for us is failure. Realize that your mind is always trying to help you. So, the more times you "try" something and fail, the more images and memories of failure your mind will find. And, the mind will assume that failure is what you actually want to experience again, since you've done it so many times. You've learned earlier that if you wanted to create a specific frame of mind, or a mindset, you would first have to rehearse it. By rehearsing, or "imagining", a particular scene, you're giving your mind something else to focus on instead of having it focus on past failures. Consequently, you're also creating more 'successful' experiences and memories in your
brain each time you rehearse that vision since your mind cannot differentiate an imagined experience from a real one. By rehearsing a particular event or vision over and over in your mind, you create more of those experience than your past 'failed' experiences. Hence you give your mind more positive experiences that it can choose from and then duplicate more of the same for your future experiences and actions. Does that make sense? I hope so. If it doesn't, don't worry about it. All the pieces will soon begin to fit together as you learn more about this "success" stuff. The important thing to grasp right now is that the more your rehearse and practice any 'successful' situation in your mind, the more you will ensure that your real expereince will be successful as well. This is why all great individuals speak so highly of the power of imagination and the importance of rehearsal and practice. Read any worthwhile book on success and you'll read about the power of your imagination. Practice makes perfect! You already knew this to be true for actual experiences. Now, you know that the same is true for imagined experiences as well! Since your mind always goes back and repeats what you've done more of, why not imagine up a whole bunch of successful experiences for your mind to pick from!
Create Your Future Now! The second fact about your mind that I had shared with you earlier was...
Whatever your mind focuses on the most will become your reality.
Let's discuss that in further detail... When you hold a mental picture or vision in your mind on a consistent basis, your mind begins to accept it as the truth. (Learning through repetition, remember?) When that happens, a gap is created between where you are at the moment and what your mind believes to be true from the mental images you have fed it. And, in order for your mind to continue believing that your mental images are real, it has to fill the gap, to fill in the blanks!
That's the beauty of the mind: Whatever task you assign it, it will come up with a solution. In other words, by making your mind believe that your vision is real, it will start searching for the pieces of the puzzle that would affirm that vision to be true. By holding a mental image or vision consistently in your mind, you are actually creating your future! When you create a future that's real in your mind, it has no choice but to fill in the blanks! It has no choice but to reveal to you the steps you need to take to create that future into reality. As that happens, all the answers start coming to you from everywhere! Your mind reaches out to the future and draws to you all the tools, resources, and people that will help you turn your vision into reality.
Have you ever wondered how the great inventors of our time came up with such astounding and inconceivable ideas? They simply tapped into the infinite and abundant resources of the universe by using their minds to draw the future to them! That's the true power of your mind! Few people ever learn of the true power of their minds. And even fewer actually use it! I hope you will not let such an awesome power go unused. Do you know how the light bulb was created? Or how most of the other amazing inventions came to be? I'll tell you this much...it was not created through trial and error. :-) Go do your own research and find out for yourself. This may seem like a stretch to you. However, this is the truth that all the great men and women have used since the beginning of time to achieve unbelievable successes. You can either dismiss it as fiction or you can start to believe what the successful people believe and harness the true creative power of your mind. As I've told you before, it's really your choice. Success is in your hands. I can only give you the tools. You'll have to put them to use.
Design A Mental Blueprint By creating mental images and visions and holding them consistently in your mind, you give your mind a purpose, a mental blueprint to work from. Just as the architect creates a paper blueprint before the actual building is ever designed, so can you create a mental
blueprint before an idea is ever turned into reality. The mind is always creating. It is always working on a blueprint to turn into reality. But for most of us, what gets created in our lives is not always what we want. This is so because most of us never consciously create the mental blueprints for our minds to follow. Most of us allow our mind to pick whatever it wants, at random. And as you've already learned, if allowed to pick on it's own, the mind will pick whatever is familiar, something from the past, which usually turns out to be failed experiences. What we also don't realize is that there are millions of other things around us that the mind can choose from. It can be things that we hear a lot about from other people, on tv, from the news, or anything else that we allow the mind to consistently focus on from our lives. It is your job to monitor very carefully what goes into your mind. If you tend to focus on negative thoughts a lot, you will only create more of that in your life. I usually tell people to cut back on the news that they watch or read about. The media will completely program your mind to do weird stuff if you allow it. If you want to create success in your life, you have to make sure that most of what you focus on and think about on a daily basis is "success-related." You want to focus on positive and empowering thoughts, on abundance and wealth, on growth and expansion. Only then will you be able to create abundance and wealth in your life. Only then will you be able to create what you want instead of allowing your mind to focus on and create at random. Have you ever noticed that the people who fear or resist certain things just get more of those things drawn to them? People who are extremely cautious and untrusting tend to attract the kinds of people that take advantage of them. As we've said before, you will draw into your life whatever your mind believes to be true. And your mind creates beliefs based on what is consistently happening around you. It learns through repetition. Give your mind a blueprint to design your future from. Don't let it pick stuff at random. Now you know that you're in control of what gets drawn into your life, good or bad. Why not start attracting only those things that you want.
Dream Big!
Since you now know that you can create whatever it is you can imagine, and since you also know that the world is a place of abundance, wealth and unlimited possibilities for you and for everyone else, what can you do with this knowledge? Why, you can do anything you want! You are in fact the creator of your life. You can create anything you want for yourself. What you can achieve is only limited by your own imagination. So, start dreaming. And dream big! Open the floodgates of your desires and dreams and let it all flow out! All the resources are available to you if you only dare to use them. Start creating the blueprint for your perfect life! It's true that you can have anything you want! Don't shortchange yourself or your loved ones. Dream big! And realize that these things won't happen overnight. After all, you've been carrying certain beliefs and thoughts with you all your life. They've been given lots of attention. But as you start to focus on what you really want, as you make those images and thoughts more consistent, you'll start to see changes happen very quickly.
Depth of Vision As you begin to envision and create your ideal future, you will find it very useful to learn that successful people have also learned something else about the mind. What's interesting to note is that many of us can only picture those things that we have actually seen or experienced through one of our senses. We can only imagine those things that we have experienced in our lives or in other people's lives. Most of us can only dream of having things that we believe we can achieve, at that moment in our lives. But successful person know better. Successful people know that they can picture or imagine anything they want, anytime they wants. They are not limited by their past experiences or by the current time frame. They can dream and imagine beyond what they have so far experienced in their lives. Successful people can see far beyond what's in front of them. Not only can they see into the future, they can also see what does not yet exist. They can look at an acorn and see the mighty oak that does not yet exist. They have what we call "depth of vision."
We also call this "possibility thinking." Because not only can the successful person see what is, he can also see what could be, or as they say, what can be, far beyond what he has seen or experienced in his life so far. Successful people can imagine an invention that doesn't even exist yet. They can then focus on that vision consistently and eventually find a way to create it in reality! The light bulb didn't exist before it was created. Someone actually used the power of their mind and found a way to do it. That's the power you have at your disposal! And we all have this power. It's not that some are gifted with it and others are not. It's just that some of us have learned that it exists and have started using it. And the more you use it, the better you become at it. The more you "rehearse" it, the better you get at it.
Why Aren't Most Dreams Being Realized? So, what then is stopping humans from dreaming up anything they want in their lives simply by creating consistent mental pictures in their minds? What's ruins it for most people is lack of action. As you've already learned, knowledge alone is not enough. You have to exert the effort, the action.
Knowledge is not enough. Only action produces results.
As you will hear repeatedly throughout this manual, without action all knowledge is useless. The same is true for what you take away from this book. If you don't use it, you won't get the results. All the knowledge in the world is worthless unless you use it! So, using what you learn is crucial in order to get results. But let's say that you started creating some powerful and consistent mental blueprints. What then? Why wouldn't that be enough to create your reality? Again, you have to take action! If you remember from your earlier learnings, holding mental pictures and visions consistently in your mind will draw to you all the resources, tools and people that can help you turn your visions into reality. But, you have to first of all be open to what's drawn to you, i.e. be open to receiving. And secondly, you have to use what is given to you! You have to apply them! You have to take action!
Deserving Versus Creating Earlier, we said that you won’t get what you want…you will only get what believe you deserve. The next thing to realize is, you will not get what you believe you deserve! Huh?! That’s right. There’s still more that’s needed. Once you’ve adopted the believe that you deserve to be rich, you now have to take action! Just believing that you deserve it is not enough. You see, a person who has only one idea, and puts it to use, can build a fortune. On the other hand, a person who has 1000 ideas but doesn't act on will never accomplish anything.
You don't need 1000 ideas to be successful. You only need one good one that you act upon!
So, the first step is to give your mind something to work on, a mental blueprint. Give this blueprint consistent focus and energy. Next, pay attention. Pay attention to what your mind is trying to tell you. Pay attention to your surroundings and your experiences. They will all carry clues that will reveal the missing pieces to you. If you don't pay attention, your mind will assume that you're not interested in that information. Eventually, it will learn to not give you any more information. You must not let that happen. The next important step is to put that information to use! Take action! If you don't use it, you will again be sending the wrong message to your mind. Your mind will assume that you are not interested in the resources that will turn your dreams into reality. And of course, the immediate outcome of not using what you receive will be that you never realize your dreams. You will never be able to turn your visions into reality. Dreaming and visualizing your outcomes in advance is a crucial step! That's where everything starts. That's what gives your mind a direction to move towards. Everything starts in your mind, remember? But you have to give it momentum by taking action. Any action that moves towards your dreams will set the natural creative forces into motion. Only action will reveal the rest of the steps to you. You should also know that the subconscious mind is very impressed by effort. When you make the effort to put to use what the mind provides you, your mind will reward you by providing you with more answers. As you continue to do this, you will train your mind to give you more, and it will continue to amaze you with some unbelievable ideas. Pretty soon, all you'll have to do is think of a problem and your mind will produce an answer immediately. This ability will get better the more you use it. The more action you take, the more answers you will get and the more detailed the answers will be, which will cause you to take action even more easily than before. It will create a giant spiral of creation in your life, which will vault you to wealth, abundance and success
faster than you ever dreamed possible.
Remember, successful people don't work hard, they work smart! They do take action, massive action. But when you allow your mind to lead the way and guide you down the best possible path, it is much easier and a lot more fun to take the action that's required. Most people simply pick whatever job or career that comes their way and then work long and hard doing something they hate. Not only do they not get anywhere, they also end up tired and miserable. Paddling day and night against the currents can be rough. In contrast, when you choose your goals and allow your mind to reveal the steps to you, taking action will be almost as easy as letting the flow of the river push you in the right direction. Sure, you'll have to make minor adjustments along the way to ensure that you don't hit rocks along the way, but the bulk of the work will be done by your mind which will provide the current that moves you in the right direction.
Creating Propulsion And Compulsion Mechanisms So, after you get your creative mind to draw the ideas and resources to you, it's your ability to take action that separates you from the idle dreamer. Taking action is the real secret to creating your reality. Without it, all your great ideas will simply vanish into thin air. Making your goals an absolute must is a big first step in driving you to take action. But, no matter how grand your ideas are, there will be certain times when getting yourself to take action may be a little harder. Fortunately for you, you will be prepared for those times in advance. You will have learned how to provide some "positive pressure" that will drive you forward towards your goals. Creating and putting the appropriate "propulsion and compulsion systems" in place will do the job. In other words, you need to design something that will create the desire to pull you towards your goals as well as push you away from the possible alternative outcomes.
There are two very powerful forces in human beings that either drive them towards a goal, or away from the alternative. Most people are conditioned to respond more when there is a negative pressure applied. They will do more to avoid a negative outcome than they will do to gain a positive outcome. The remainder of people, the smaller group, will respond more when positive pressure is applied. So, most people will work more towards achieving their goals if they realize that the alternative could cause them a lot of pain. And the others will work more when they focus on the pleasure of achieving the goals. To explain it another way, most people will do more to avoid pain than they will to gain pleasure. Anthony Robbins has really popularized this age-old "pain-pleasure principle" through his products. When you find out which of these two forces drive you more, you can use that one to your advantage to help you achieve your goals much faster.
But...what if you were to use both the forces, simultaneously, to drive yourself towards your goals? Wouldn't the combined forces of the two be much more powerful and effective than just one of the forces? You bet they will.
When you are able to set up both propulsion and compulsion systems that will pull you towards your goal as well as push you away from the alternative, you'll be twice as driven to turning your goals into reality! And when you design strong enough systems, you will walk through fire to get to your goals! This is the power that successful people take advantage of. Let's discuss how we can design these powerful systems and place them strategically to where they provide you with all the positive pressure you need to take consistent action.
Conscious Visualization The first method is of course, conscious visualization. By visualizing that you have already achieved your goal and enjoying that vision, you strongly impress the mental blueprint upon your subconscious. By consistently holding the same vision in your mind each morning, night and as often as you can throughout the day, you keep reminding your mind of what's important to you. You continue to give your mind a target to move towards. You continue to remind yourself of the pleasures that can be yours! And more importantly, by being consistent, you start to tap into the creative powers of your mind. Your mind starts believing that your vision is real. When that happens, your mind has to fill in the blanks between your current reality and what it believes to be the reality. It starts revealing to you the steps needed to achieve your vision. It starts attracting the right energies and resources to you to help you achieve your vision. Your exercise: It is crucial that you do your visualizations every morning and night, and experience being in that vision as often as you can throughout the day. In doing so, you will allow your mind to cut through the distractions and continue to work on the goal in the background, even when you're asleep. See yourself as already having what you want, and get in touch with how that feels. And try to feel that as often as possible.
What Verses Why As we've mentioned earlier, acting on our dreams, goals and plans can sometimes be difficult. Life tends to get in the way of living, at times. There are so many distractions and events going on in our lives, and in our heads, that we get caught up in other unimportant stuff; hence, our dreams and goals get lost within the chaos. And we come to the end of our lives and realize that we didn't do nearly as much as we really wanted to do. We didn't spend our time doing what we really wanted but instead got caught up in the insignificant, unimportant things in life. We didn't come anywhere close to tapping our real potential. You need something that will create that desire, that drive, that passion that will compel you to do what you really want! To go for what you truly desire. Despite the distractions! One of the best ways to ignite the rocket fuel of your desires is by finding out why you want those desires to become your daily reality. You also need to find out why it will cause you a lot of pain if you don't work towards your desires. Successful people ask the right questions, remember? Great marketers and sales letter writers know this. They know how to get their customers to focus in the specified direction so the customers will be driven to buy from them. They outline all the "benefits" of having the product and all the "drawbacks" of not getting the product. By doing this, they push every possible button of the customer to get him to take action. You need to do the same thing to yourself regarding your dreams and goals. Here are some useful questions you can ask yourself to drive you towards massive action...
Questions that will drive you towards your goal: Why do I really want to achieve this goal? How will achieving this goal benefit me? What are all the things I will gain financially, emotionally, and spiritually, and so on, by achieving this goal?
Questions that will push you away from the grim alternative: What will it cost me if I don't make achieving this goal an absolute must? What are all the things I will lose out on if I don't achieve this goal? What will it cost me financially, emotionally, spiritually, and so on, if I don't start working on achieving this goal right now?
Important tip: When you ask yourself these questions, put some energy and feelings into it. Really picture and imagine all the things you will gain right now and in your future by taking action to reach your goals. Experience your future right now using all your senses! Make it so real that you mind cannot tell the difference between your pictures and reality. Then, really imagine what it will ultimately cost you if you don't take action to achieve your goals. What will it cost you? What is the absolute worst that could happen to you if you don't start taking action right now to achieve your goals? Again, put a lot of energy and emotion into it. Really feel how it would feel, using all your senses.
Your exercise: Ask yourself the above questions and write down the answers for all of them into your notebook. Be sure to put a lot of energy and emotion into each question. Once you have all the answers down, review your questions and answers at least once a day, preferably twice (morning and night.) Remember, repetition will convince your mind that you're serious about this. Each day, remind your mind of what all the benefits will be of taking action to achieve your goals. And, remind your mind of all the pain you will have to go through if you don't make it happen. If you seriously do this, it will be all your mind needs to vault you towards your goals by applying consistent positive pressure on you to take action.
How Verses Why Most of us get caught up in trying to figure out how to get to our goals. We start searching for specific steps we can take to achieve our goals. When we don't immediately get the right answers, we usually tend to give up on our dreams and goals. Or we will take some action until the thrill is gone, and then we quit.
But you know better now. The how is not important. Finding out what steps to take to become rich is easy. Think about it...you can very easily to go any bookstore or the internet and buy tons of books and courses on how to make money selling products, investing in real estate, trading stocks, etc. The list goes on and on. There are thousands of money making ideas. But very few people are able to use them well enough to make money. So, it's not the how that's important. It's the why! When you can find strong enough reasons to pull you towards your goals and push you away from the alternative, your mind will find a way to make it happen!
When you can find strong reasons to take action, your mind will find a way to make it happen!
The stronger and more compelling your reasons are, the stronger will be your desire to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Later on, we will also discuss the "how" in greater detail. You will discover how you can find the best possible steps to take to get to your goals. You will learn how to work smart, not hard.
Dreams And Deadlines Another very powerful way marketers get their customers to take action is by placing a deadline on their offer. A specific deadline tells the customer that if he doesn't take action immediately, he will lose out on all the benefits and simultaneously experience all the pain of not taking action! You can do the same with all your dreams and desires. Give them a timeline. Place a deadline on yourself. This gives your mind a specific timeframe and creates added positive pressure to make it happen! As soon as you give your dreams a deadline, you turn them into concrete goals.
Whatever it is that you can dream up, it turns into a goal the moment you give it a deadline. We will discuss goals in more detail later.
For now, go through each of the dreams and desires you listed and give them a timeline. Give them a deadline by which you are absolutely committed to achieving them. Your timelines could be as short as a few months or as long as a few years. It's all up to you on how soon you want each of those goals to become your reality.
Goal-Setting and Reasons Why Once we've taken care of our beliefs, focus, and habits, i.e. our mindset, we can go back to the same simple step-by-step formula of success and fill in all the details so the entire success plan can begin to unfold before us. The main steps again, are: Figure out exactly what your goals are. What's your destination? What's your outcome? Make a commitment, a firm decision, to follow through on your goals. Get a map! Figure out a plan of action to follow. Find out what the steps are. Start the engines and get moving. Take action! Watch the road. Pay attention and adjust/adapt accordingly. I'd like to add one final step to the formula, and that is… Continue to improve and make it better. You see, success is a never-ending journey. When you reach your destination, another adventure begins. You want to continue to move forward, continue to get better, continue to grow. That's what life is all about. So…! Let's get to the first step, shall we?
Pick A Target: Clarify Your Goals We already know that one of the best ways to become financially independent is to start your own business. If you already have a business, I'd suggest that you still read this section. It may give you a few new ideas or views to consider. So…we want to start our own business! That's great. But, that goal is so vague, it's like saying "I'd like to visit some place nice." There's no target. We need to figure out what kind of business we want to start. And we've already said that the best way to decide that is to just go with something you enjoy doing. To be more specific, you want to find out what you're passionate about! What do you love to do so much that you'd continue to do it even if you didn't get paid for it. You wouldn't care because you love it so much. That's the first key to starting a successful business.
1. Find Your Passion When you start with a mental picture of what you want to achieve, your brain starts giving you ideas and tips on how to go about achieving your goal. Your mind would then proceed to show you the steps needed to get to your goal. It would start giving you clues and tips on making it happen. That is a great way to get just about anything you want in life. But...if your goal is to become wealthy, you can really speed up the process by finding your passion and then doing it. Many of us pick a job and/or career that we don't really enjoy. Our decisions are affected by our parents, piers, field of study, income potential and so on. Very rarely do we pick a career that we actually enjoy. When we spend most of our days working on something that we don't really like, we become off balance. In contrast, when we choose to do what we enjoy, we align ourselves with the creative forces of our mind, and that of the universe. Things begin to flow smoothly, without much friction. Successful people are not only successful because they have the money, and the freedom and time to enjoy it. The truly successful people are those who enjoy the work they do.
They have fun doing what they do to earn a living. Moreover, successful people love doing what they do because it also fulfills them. It gives them a sense of accomplishment, a sense of contribution, a sense of purpose. It gives their lives meaning! They actually feel and know that they're making a difference, that they're contributing. That's ultimate success! Anyone can read a book on making money, force themselves to take massive action and make a lot of money. But most people who do things this way realize that they're not really happy. They discover that they hate their jobs and they hate waking up every morning to go do what they don't enjoy. That's not success. That is a job! It doesn't matter whether you're working for someone else or running your own business. If you don't love what you're doing, it will be just another job to you. Think about it. Anyone can learn the basic success tools, then go out there and work hard day and night to make money. But at the end of the day, if that work doesn't mean much to them, they'll always feel a void in their lives. Besides, if you have to wake up every morning dreading the work you have ahead of you because you don't enjoy doing it, that's not success. That's a job! Anyone can find a job. Successful people go for a satisfying job, a satisfying career. They start right by choosing to start a business that involves them doing what they love to do! A successful life is a fulfilling life.
Do what you love and the money will follow. Some people go for a career that pays the most. That is their only deciding criteria. It's not the smart way to go. Many of these same people, after having the kind of money that they want, find out that they're still not happy with their lives. Some of them decide to change careers at that point and do what they enjoy more. Others simply stay where they are and continue doing what they don't enjoy. You don't have to do that. You can save time by simply starting with what you love to do! Successful people know that when they find something they really enjoy doing, the money will follow. It's a natural law of life. You will need to start believing in this same law, and
trusting it. When you love what you're doing, you will also often do a much better job than another person who doesn't enjoy doing that work. As you can imagine, your product will turn out to be much superior than the other person's. And everyone loves quality.
So, ask yourself another very important question... If I had all the money in the world and all the free time to enjoy it, what would I be doing with my life? What career would you choose? How would you contribute? What is the one thing that you enjoy doing the most? What are you most passionate about? And don't say that you'll simply eat and sleep all day. As wonderful as that sounds, you will eventually get bored and become unhappy. Just look at all those rich and famous people that had all the money and fame but still resorted to drugs or alcohol to try to feel good, to kill boredom or find happiness. That clearly shows that money and time is not enough! You need to be doing something you're passionate about, something you enjoy and love. Something that gives your life meaning. Write down the answers to the above question in your note pad. Here are more questions to help you find your passion... What do I enjoy doing the most? What are my favorite hobbies, interests, and passions? This will help your brainstorming session. Write everything down. Pretty soon you should have a list of things that you could turn into a profitable career. We will discuss how to do that later. Don't worry if you can't think of a way to turn your love into a career just yet. For now, just make the list of everything you love and enjoy. And, simply realize that you have to start by doing what you love. That is the most important first step towards true and lasting success. You will also find that taking daily action towards your goals also becomes much easier when you're doing what you enjoy and love, when you're doing what you have a passion
for. Do you see how it's becoming easier and easier to take action as you continue to learn more? If you can't pick one thing out of your list that you'd like to do the most, pick a few of your favorites. Then, pick the best one out of that group. If you're still undecided, simply pick one from that smaller group - at random. Some people have more than one passion they want to pursue. That's totally fine. We'll figure out how to do that later.
One Word: Service You've already learned that the best way to make money is to give of yourself, to serve others, to produce value in other people's lives, to help others become wealthy in some way! The only way to be fulfilled and to make a difference is to contribute to others. But, as we mentioned earlier, you have to first start from within. You have to follow your heart and do what you're passionate about. Only once you've done that can you help others. Only then can you overflow on to others. Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -- Howard Thurman
Let's face it, if you hate doing something, you will usually not do your best. That in turn will cause others to get bad service, bad products, or both. And that, in turn, will cause you to lose business and profits. But once you've chosen to do what you love, the next step is to do such a great job of it, that others simply fall in love with your work. There is nothing more fulfilling than doing what you love and be able to see how happy you make others feel by doing it. Nothing beats that feeling. Nothing at all. You've heard it before...
The best way to become wealthy is to help others become wealthy! Create value in other people's lives through service and you will be richly rewarded in return! Find out what you're passionate about, take one of those passions and find a way to help others with it. Do some research. Look for books on that subject. Find out how others are providing that service to people. And, when you find them, learn from your competition!
2. Make a Firm Decision! Not everyone will be able to immediately figure out the one thing they'd love to do the most from the list they've made. That's ok. The important thing is to pick one for now - to make a decision! That in itself is very powerful. It gives your mind a target, it sets the creative laws into motion more powerfully than any of us will ever fully realize. So, pick your favorite hobby or interest and go with that. As you've already learned, decisions are very powerful. It gets your mind to commit to a specific task, a specific goal to go after. Your mind works best when it is focused, just as a laser beam has more power than a flood light. When your thoughts are scattered, you rarely get what you want. When it's focused, you create explosive power! After you have decided on what you would like to do, it's time to make a few more decisions. Decide to take this goal seriously. It is, after all, your life we're talking about here. It's no small matter. Decide right now that you will learn the knowledge provided in this book and use it to make your dreams and goals come true. Decide that you will start doing what you love so that you can have the money, the time, and the fulfillment that you know you deserve. If you are currently working for someone else, decide right now that your current job is your temporary job. Decide that you will only do that job to supplement, fund and build your true career, which is doing what you love. Decide once and for all that you will not be part of the majority of people who never get what they want. You will join the rare breed of successful people who always get everything they want!
Make Financial Abundance A Necessity So what is it that stops so many people from doing whatever it takes to become wealthy? Well, for starters, most people never make "having financial abundance" an absolute must they don't make it a necessity! Most of us don't necessarily enjoy having just enough money to get by but, you know, we're comfortable there. Sure we'd like to have more money but we really don't want to step out of that comfortable and familiar place and step out into the unknown. Think about it... Most of us have a set figure, a certain amount of money, that we absolutely must earn each and every month in order to survive, right? We need a certain amount of money each month to pay the bills, buy groceries, and so on. Well...what would you do if you found out today that your current source of monthly income was suddenly cut off from your life? Would you go out there and do whatever it took to find other means of earning that monthly income to survive? Of course you would! Because if you didn't, you'd be out on the streets. See, you have set a specific dollar amount as your "absolute must have" amount, the absolute minimum amount you need in order to survive. It's this amount that you would do anything to maintain. To be wealthy, you have to make having financial abundance an absolute must! You have to make it a priority just as you have done with your current monthly income. You have to come up with a specific figure which is much more than just what you need to survive, and you have to be committed to do whatever it takes to maintain that figure each and every month. When you do that, you begin to shift your focus from survival to abundance. Unless you make having financial excess an absolute must, you will not have the motivation and the drive to make it happen. You will not follow through on your goals. Break through the glass ceiling that you have unconsciously created for yourself. Change that monthly figure right now from a 'survival' amount to an 'abundance' amount! Be committed to that new amount and you'll see some amazing transformations in your finances and in your life.
You've got to want it! You've got to have a burning desire for it!
Create A Mission Statement You've noticed that I ask you to write things down a lot. There is power in the written word. Countless studies have shown that the who wrote down their goals achieved them more often than those who didn't. Writing your goals down clearly impresses them onto your subconscious mind even more. Write down a small paragraph on what your mission is. Define exactly what you want to do and the kind of results you want to achieve. Write it in the present tense - as if you're doing it right now. View your mission statement as often as you can, and read the words out loud whenever you can. Remember to use your energy and emotions when you read the statement. As you go about your day, your subconscious mind will continue to work towards your outcome. It will attract to you the energies, ideas, and resources that will help you make your goals a success! This will further solidify your decision. There's No "Trying" In Success? Generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with trying something. However, many of us have learned to use "trying" as a safety net, as an excuse for failure. When some people say "I'll try it," they're telling their brain that there are two possible outcomes to their actions: success...or...failure. They're telling themselves that since they're "trying" it out, they don't really have to commit to the task. If you're one of these people, then for you, "trying" is a trap. When you believe that there's a chance of success or failure, you usually say "I'll try it" because it guarantees that you won't feel bad or look bad if you fail since you knew there was a good chance of failure. What we don't realize is that by looking at things in this way, we are rehearsing our mind to produce more failures, as touched on earlier. See, your subconscious mind will only produce for you what it believes to be true. And what it believes to be true is dictated purely by your past experiences and memories. So, as soon as you say to yourself "I'll try it," your subconscious mind goes through its data bank
and looks for what you have rehearsed more of - what you have "done." Consequently, it goes with what you already know how to do - which is failure. Use visualization and imagination to create more successes in your mind. And, couple that with trying.
Get A Map: Develop A Plan of Action When you are getting ready for a trip, you don't just find out what your destination is. You have to create, or find, a map that will clearly show you the directions to get to your destination. It's the same with anything in life. To get from point A to point B, you need a map. You need a plan. Once you have decided to turn your love into a career, the next step is to learn as much as you can about that business. Yes, your mind will reveal many answers and steps to you. But that doesn't mean you should wait for all of it to fall on your lap. The subconscious mind is supremely impressed with effort, remember? The more action you take towards your goals, the more answers you'll get from your mind. So, start doing your research. Read the books, take the classes, join the clubs that you need to, in order to get the information. If you don't know anything about starting a business, there are many books and courses offered on the subject. The same is true for marketing, taxes, and so on. The "how" is easy, remember? And of course, if you're consistently doing your visualizations, your mind will be passing a lot of information your way. Be aware, open and responsive to those ideas and clues. It could come to you in any form: a billboard, something on tv, soemthing another person says to you, maybe even a unique design on a tortilla chip. (Just kidding about the last one. Although you never know... :-) Gather all the information you find and design your Action Plan!
Model Successful People To really speed up the process, find someone who is already successful at doing what you
would like to be doing. Whatever it is you'd like to do, there's someone out there who's already doing it successfully. If you'd like to get the same kind of results as that person, just do the same things they do. A wise man learns from his mistakes. A wiser man learns from the mistakes of others.
Learn from the mistakes they have already made so you don't make those same mistakes yourself. By doing so, you will save a lot of time, energy, and headaches. This is called "role modeling." If you were to learn how to drive a car, would you learn on your own, through trial and error? Or would you learn from someone who already drives well? The same principle applies to everything else you want to do. Remember, this is exactly what you're learning from this book. Instead of trying to achieve success by trial-and-error, you are learning from the successes of others who came before you. In the process, you're saving a ton of time and money. Another clever thing you can do is to continue to follow your role models and watch what they do. Watch what they continue to change, tweak, and improve upon. Then, use the same ideas to improve your own business, if they apply to you.
Start The Engines: Take Action Immediately We discussed earlier that action creates the momentum needed to get the ball rolling, to set the creative forces in motion. Without action, all your knowledge is wasted. So, once you find a role model (or models) and figure out what they're doing, it's time to take action! Start doing what they're doing and you will produce the same results. In most cases, you only need a basic idea of what the successful person is doing to get started yourself. Don't try to learn everything there is to learn about the business before you get started. Learn the basics and get moving! While learning as much as you can about the business is always a good idea, don't let the process of learning get in the way of doing. Learn the basics and get busy. Then, learn more about the business as you go along. Learn by doing.
If you're still not sure that what you're doing is the best choice out of all the things you love to do, it's ok. Just go with whatever is your best choice at the moment. As you start doing what you enjoy, the picture will become clearer and the answers will come to you more easily. By doing what you love, you will be led towards your true love, simply because you got the energy moving. You set the wheels into motion by taking action. So, the important thing is to get started! To take action.
Test The Waters Ok, so you have learned what to do from your role model and are ready to take action. But, before you jump in with both feet, test your strategy out on a small scale. Ideally, you want to test your strategy out effectively without spending a fortune. For example, if you've learned that your role model places classified ads in hundreds of publications to generate leads, you can't start doing the same thing right away. You have to start out on a smaller scale, according to your budget, and find out what works best for your specific strategy. Once you have found out what works, you can then roll out on a larger scale. I would still advise you to stay within your budget. Taking risks are great, but don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose. You have learned exactly what to do, but you're still learning the ropes. Don't make foolish mistakes that you may later regret. The wealthy and successful people continue to become more wealthy and successful because they can afford to stop and test their ideas out before investing too much into it. When they find a winner, only then do they bet big. The beginner is usually so desperate and in such a hurry to succeed, that he usually makes the mistake of jumping in with both feet without stopping to test, and he gets burned. Don't take action out of desperation. So, test your ideas out on a smaller scale, for effectiveness and responsiveness. Then, charge forward.
Watch The Road: Adapt and Improvise So, you've found out what works, you've tested them out cheaply and effectively and have now started to roll. Does that mean you can now just sit back and watch the money pouring in? Not necessarily. If you've lived in the real world for even a few years, you know that things don't always go perfectly and smoothly. Admit it, life would be boring if things worked that way, wouldn't it? You have to be ready for the winds of change to blow! You have to keep your eyes open and notice how you're doing. When things start going off track, you simply nudge it back in the right direction. You still need to paddle the boat to avoid the rocks, remember? If something you're doing is not working, you simply adapt and improvise. You change and tweak it a bit.
Let's say that you've learned how to drive a car and have had some real-world, streetdriving experience under your belt. Does that mean you are guaranteed a perfectly smooth ride every time from now on? Of course not. There can always be bumps on the road, accidents, detours, or even roadblocks up ahead. Oh yeah, and let's not forget about those other wonderful drivers out there.
This is another place where most people lose it - those who could have otherwise become extremely successful. You've heard it before... If it doesn't bend, it breaks.
You just have to keep your eyes open, pay attention, and be willing to adjust to the little bumps. If we're driving and come across an accident or a pothole, we just drive around it. If there's a roadblock, we quickly find a detour and get back on track. We don't give up and quit. We simply adapt and improvise.
Build In Feedback Mechanisms The best way to gauge the quality and effectiveness of your projects is to create and place feedback mechanisms. This will quickly let you know if you're on the right track or not. It would also help you to constantly improve what you're doing. More importantly, it will give you ideas on creating new products and services that are hot, and tell you which products/projects to get rid of. Who better to tell you which products and services to create than your prospects and existing customers? Each time you roll out a new project, be open to feedback from your customers. Encourage them to let you know what they think, like, dislike, and so on. Offer them gifts in exchange for their time. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to stay ahead of your competitors and continue to create quality products and services for your industry. It is also the most ignored strategy and should be taken full advantage of to ensure your success.
The Trap Of Achieving Success! Most people don't realize this but success can be just as bad for you as failure. In fact, it can be worse! Let me explain... Let's say that after doing everything right and taking lots of action, you finally became successful! When most people get to this place where they've finally become successful, they usually tend to get lazy. They think they're done! It's over. That's not how it works. What you don't use, you lose, remember? The same is true for your success. Remember, it's not the destination. It's the journey that's important! The act of working towards the goal is the real prize. That's what changes who you are. That is what makes you grow. When you've achieved a goal, it's time to either make it better or find new and better goals. Learn to continue the climb. Learn to continue to reach for more. Get back to the basics and create something bigger!
If it stops growing, it begins to die.
If you've finished a project successfully, start a new one. If you've made a lot of money, don't just let it sit in the bank or under your mattress. Invest it, and make it grow! Help others and give them the opportunity to grow as well. Help others get started. Circulate the money. It's like blood, as you've learned previously. You have to keep circulating it. Holding on tightly to what you've got will not make it grow. It will only cause it to diminish. When you let it circulate, you allow it to grow and come back to you multiplied. This is true for money, skills, knowledge, and just about everything else in life. You can either continue to grow or you can cease to exist. Look around you at nature and you'll know this to be true. Don't let one success be the end of it all. Continue to act, contribute, invest and grow.
Strive for Continued Improvement: Make It Better I remember the day I finally was able to use my inline skates to skate without falling or even worrying about falling. For the next few months, I was out skating for at least an hour per session. Then, when I got good, a friend of mine became interested in it and wanted me to teach her how to skate. I have to admit, she was really bad at it :-) But after a few weeks, she improved and was able to skate fairly well. A few months later, I stopped skating as often. And then finally one day, I called her up and decided to go skating with her. To my surprise, she was doing things I was not able to do! She had become really good at it. Much better than me! See, she had continued to skate and improve a little each day while I had stopped. Not only was I not as good as her anymore, I was not as good as I was a few months ago. Just because you've learned the basics and are producing good results does not mean that you should stop working. When you stop, your results will slow down, and eventually stop as well. If you don’t continue to improve, you won’t get better. Moreover, you won’t stay as good as you were either. You’ll get worse! What you need to do instead is to continue to improve on what you know. Work on becoming better every day. Master the basics and then build on it every single day. Aim on becoming the expert in your field. Strive to do it better than anyone else! That is how great successes are born. By improving a little every day, you will create a snowball effect. Before you know it, you will be incredibly good at what you do. And your family, friends, and clients will notice it!
Develop The Core Skills There are certain skills that are absolutely necessary for you to learn in order to succeed in your field. For example, one of the core skills required in just about any business these days is computer literacy. If you don't know much about using computers, make it a point to take some introductory classes or purchase some type of interactive, learn-at-home program.
If you tend to type a lot in your business, it may be a good idea to learn to type using all fingers, if you don't already know how. If your business requires you to interact a lot with other people, you may want take some classes that would improve your people skills. The actual skills will vary depending on what business you're in. But each type of business relys on it's own set of core skills. These core skills are absolutely necessary for your success. Not only will they improve the quality of your work, they could also save you a lot of time and money in the process. Take the time out to learn them.
Master the Fundamentals You could have one person who has learned and mastered only 10 techniques and another person who has learned 100 techniques, but mastered none. Who do you think will win the fight? You guessed it. The one who has mastered 10. As in most things in life, it's usually quality that wins over quantity. How do you become a master at anything? By practicing the fundamentals over and over again. Take any sport or skill and you'll find that the same is true. Your mind learns through repetition, remember? As I mentioned earlier, many people get caught in the "learning" trap. They're always wanting to find and learn something "new!" Unless you have mastered the basics, this is not the best attitude to have. The successful person knows that... You must learn to crawl before you can learn to walk. You must learn to walk before you learn to fly. He knows that by practicing the basics every day, he will begin to notice little nuances that other people will never see. He will start making important distinctions and learn new things within the basics that most people will never experience or realize. And as he continues to practice the basics, he will become a master. Wanting to learning something new is great. But unless you master the fundamentals, all the new stuff will only get in the way. They will only complicate things more and confuse
you.
The successful person knows that only when you've mastered the basics can you use the more advanced learnings effectively. Don't jump the gun. Practice the basics daily. Begin to notice the unfamiliar "within" the familiar. Become a master. When you do, all the other new things you learn and use will only become that much more powerful and effective.
Become Your Own Expert No one will manage your business and your finances better than you because no one cares more about it than you do. Millions of people found this out after they lost their entire life-savings in the recent stock market disaster of 2000 (and counting!) No one will care about your money like you do. Not your stock broker, not your banker, not your accountant, no one! That is why you should absolutely commit yourself to learning as much as you can about running your business and managing your finances. No one will do more make your business and your investments grow than you will. Sometimes, even people who care about you will give you the wrong information or strategies that are outdated. It is up to you to get the right information. Learn about running your business, learn about marketing it, learn about the best investment strategies to make your money work for you continuously, and learn the tax laws since you'll be paying a lot of taxes! It is your responsibility. When things go wrong, your customers and others will not blame your investor or your accountant, or your broker. They will blame you. They will come to you for answers. Also, when you do need to get help and advice from others, you will be better able to know who to go to because you will be better able to evaluate their expertise when you have a good understanding and knowledge of the basics yourself.
Stay In The Game No matter which industry you choose to do business in, there is some degree of continuous learning you have to dedicate yourself to. Especially if you want to stay current and competitive. This is especially obvious in the computer industry. Computer Technicians, for example, need to constantly update their knowledge and skills to remain marketable. If a technician only knew Windows 3.1, he would not have been able to keep his clients when they all upgraded to Windows 95 as it became the new standard. But it didn't stop there. He then had to learn Windows 98, and months later Windows 2000, so he could continue to serve his customers. Fortunately, most fields do not change and evolve that fast. But they do change to some degree. Your job is to continue to stay current and marketable in whichever field you're in. One of the best ways to do this is to keep a close eye on what your role models do and follow their lead. You can also find other reliable sources (magazines, trade publications, books, courses, etc.) that will continue to keep you informed and updated. The right sources will usually save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. And, of course, once you learn the new strategies, put them to use right away! Don't let them go to waste. If you don't continue to update your skills, you don't stay in the game. If you don't stay in the game, you can't win.
Break the Rules, Not the Wheel As discussed earlier, a common mistake most people make is they attempt to fly before they're learned to walk, and sometimes, even before they've learned to crawl. Only after Bruce Lee mastered the art of Wing Chun and various other martial arts could he clearly see that something new could be created. He decided to extract the very best from all the arts and created something different, something better. That was the birth of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee's own unique form of martial arts. He combined the very best of all the different arts, the different forms, and created an art that was "formless" - that could be adapted to any fighting scenario. Only once you have mastered the basics can you start thinking out of the box. Only after you've mastered the basics can you add your own twist to it. So...after you have successfully modeled an expert and have mastered the basics, you're ready to get creative! When you have a solid understanding and experience of the fundamentals, you can then start to see things most others won't be able to see. You'll be able to think out of the box. You'll be able to create soemthing that hasn't been created yet - a new idea, a new strategy, a new technology. You will also find that the more you practice the fundamentals, the more you work towards noticing something new about the same situation, the more new ideas will come to you. The more avenues and options will open up for you. Only after you've mastered the basics can you ask these questions... What can I notice here that hasn't been noticed yet? How can I personalize/customize it to fit my lifestyle better? How can I improve upon this idea/product/technology? What can I create that hasn't yet been created?
When you open your mind to these trains of thoughts, you'll begin to get some new and unique ideas. Hidden within one of these ideas will be at least one sure-fire winner that you can take to the bank!
But you have to master the basics before you can ever get to that point. Don't re-invent the wheel. Use it to create something better! Your new ideas will be based on the basic principles that you mastered. Only then can you think outside the box. Only then can you break the rules and find a brand-new winner!
Stay Ahead of the Game It's important to stay in the game, as we've discussed. But successful people don't stop there. They do one better. They watch for upcoming trends and prepare for them in advance. Consider this... By the time the masses find out about something, it's old news. If it's on Prime Time, it's usually yesterday's news. Take for example the stock market. When the masses hear about a hot stock that's doing well, they all jump in hoping to ride it up. They don't realize that by the time this news makes it to the masses, that stock has already made it's big jumps, in most cases. Sometimes you get lucky, but most times, it's just old news. Your stock broker will tell you to be happy with a measly 12% annual return. But those who pay attention and get in before the masses easily enjoy profits of 50, 100, 200% or more! It's kinda like surfing. The masses usually are not aware of the big wave about to hit so they either barely survive it or drown under it when it hits. But the smart surfer knows enough to pay attention. He watches for the trends, starts preparing before the big wave hits and therefore manages to ride it all the way home. The successful people get there beforehand and set up systems to capitalize from what's about to come. You should do the same. Read trade journals related to your field. Watch shows that discuss prototype products or technology relating to any subject that interests you. Your time will be much better spent doing that instead of watching the news, which focuses mostly on old news and melodrama, including the most recent crimes being committed.
Pay attention, do your research, prepare, and profit from the next big wave. Stay ahead of the game!
Pay Your Business First! You always want to continue to nourish the tree from which you're getting the fruits. If the plant dies, you don't get anymore fruits. As you begin to make a profit, one of the first things you want to do is to invest at least 10% of your profits into your business. Make this a strict rule! If you can invest more, great. I know it's easy to get carried away when the money starts coming in. We'd rather go out there and spend it all right away. But that's not the wisest thing to do. You do want to enjoy some of that money, which we will talk about later, but don't forget to re-invest into the business first! Make that a priority. It may seem like common sense but many businesses never do this. They wait for the tree to start dying and then desperately try to overload it with water and nutrients, usually killing it a lot sooner. And as you already know, most decisions made in desperation are not the wisest ones. So, don't wait for your profits to drop before you invest into your business. Continue to do this on a consistent basis - when you can actually afford to do so. The more you re-invest in your business, the more your business will grow. And the more your business grows, the more profits you'll earn, and the more money you'll be able to go shopping with.
Double Your Income Instantly: Systemize, Automate & Multiply! How much money would you like to make from your business within a year? $20,000 per year? $50,000? $100,000? Think of a number right now and write it down. So, what number did you pick? Now let me ask you this...what would it take for you to double that income? For most people, the answer is "working harder, or working more hours." But, when you actually go out there and compare the differences between a person making $100,000 to another person who's making twice, thrice or even 10 times as much from the same type of business, you will find that the only difference is that the more successful person has found a way to systemize his business! That's usually the only difference! By systemizing the pieces involved, the more successful person is able to do less work and earn more money. Once you systemize a process, you can then handle more customers, more orders, and more deliveries. Hence, you can grow your business and make more money!
So, what can you do with your business? How can you systemize it? The first step is to know what each component of your business is! Then, create a chart of every tiny step of the process. Next, notice which tasks are repetitive and find a way to automate our outsource them so you can free up a lot of time. Also, look for other tasks that can be simplified or automated in any way. Ask yourself one question... How can I systemize the work so I have to work the least amount to achieve the maximum results? Then, ask yourself the final question... How can I systemize it in such a way that I don't have to physically be there in order for it to continue to work and generate a profit?
Think of all the top money-makers of our time... Colonel Sanders didn't fry his own chicken. He sold his recipe to others who prepared and sold the chicken. Ray Croc didn’t grill his own burgers either. Bill Gates does not write software code. He has other people doing that for him. But we don't have to use such big companies as examples. Look at the small restaurant owner, or the apartment complex owner, or even the successful online business owner. The successful ones don't have to be there in order for the business to generate a profit. They can be wherever they want to be. Because they have created a system which allows them that freedom. And more importantly, it frees up their time so they can focus on what they love to do best! And they can be able to expand their business, create and market more products or services, and generate a lot more profit as a result. They can also take the entire system from their first product or service and duplicate the entire process for their next product! Pretty soon, they can have an entire line of products/ services all generating a profit. So, once you have a business that works and generates a profit, systemize, automate, and multiply so that it continues to generate more profits for you even while you sleep! Then, duplicate the entire process and launch your next product!
Always Have A Back-End Most people fail to consistently provide their customers with quality products and/or service. They stop selling new products long before their customers' appetites to buy subsides.
Most people stop selling to their customers long before the customers stop buying.
Don't make this rookie mistake! The most expensive thing to do is acquire a new customer. The second most expensive
thing to do is to lose an existing customer. Once you've acquired a customer, it doesn't cost you to sell to him again and again. The customer is already yours! Continue to interact with your customers after they've made their first purchase. Keep reminding them of your products, services, and specials. And continue to sell as long as the customer is willing to buy. You can make good money selling one or two products to your customers. You can become wealthy by continuing to provide them with great products. Your customers get quality products that can help them improve their lives in some way, and you get paid what you're worth. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Build Strong Relationships The surefire way to build strong relationships with your customers, and everyone else, is to be honest with them and go out of your way to provide the best service you possibly can. Provide speed and dependability. And establish trust. Add to that quality products and you will turn one-time buyers into loyal, lifetime customers. And, as is true with everything else, be consistent. Continue to maintain honesty, provide great service and quality products and everyone will continue to do business with you. Be a guide to your clients. Inform and educate them. Find out what's best for the clients and then provide it to them.
Surround Yourself With the Right People You've already learned that by focusing your thoughts and emotions in a specific direction, you get to take back control of your life. You start to create the kind of life that you want, by conscious choice instead of chance. The same is true for your environment and what you allow in, including news and gossip. It also becomes obvious that the company you keep can have a considerable impact on the
quality of your thoughts, and your life. By being around people who usually experience negative emotions, you start to direct your mind back to those channels. Similarly, by being around positive-minded, optimistic and action-oriented people, your own productive and creative side flourishes and becomes stronger. Choose the company you keep very wisely. Your life depends on it!
Form Powerful Alliances It will be to your advantage to seek out, and form positive relationships with, like-minded people, both in your personal and business environments. There is power in unity and in numbers. By creating a network of like-minded people working towards similar goals, you will support and empower each other. You will be able to stay updated on what's going on in your field. You will be able to strike up mutuallybeneficial deals and marketing campaigns. And you may even walk away forming some powerful and lasting friendships. You should also know that the quickest way to build your business is to join forces with other business owners in your related market. You can cross promote each other's products to your customers and instantly increase your customer base. And, if you ever run out of product ideas, or just aren't able to create the next product on time, it is perfectly okay to affiliate with others and promote their products to your customers. Most people will tell you that you should only promote your own products. That's B.S. If you've got enough products of your own to keep you busy, that's understandable. But if you don't have a product of your own to sell, you better find someone else who has one quick and start marketing it! Note: Before you agree to endorse someone else's product to your customers, be sure to check the other person's system out thoroughly, including the quality of product(s) and service offered. You don't want to promote just any product to your personal customer list. Do your research first.
Eliminate Energy-Draining Relationships
If you try to please everyone, you'll please no one.
I've mentioned how important it is to your success to surround yourself, form alliances with, and build positive relationships with the right kind of people. Yet, it is just as important to keep the negative-minded, energy-sucking people out of your life! As hard as this may be for some people to swallow, it will be very wise for you to get rid of people who are limiting you in any way. Anyone who continously ridicules your dreams and goals, causes you too much grief or pain, drains you of your energy and enthusiasm, or has a huge negative impact on you in any other way, should be removed from your life. If it is impossible to completely remove them from your life, you should do your best to interact with them as little as possible, and do your best to not let their words and actions affect you much. This applies to both your personal and business relationships. In your personal life, there can be people who will never grow and will not let you grow either. They will take you down with them if you give them the chance. There are others who will despise you because they know they can be just as successful as you if they only got off their butts and took action. This is normal so be ready for this and don't let it affect you in any way. Once they reveal themselves, get them out of your life as quickly as possible or just stay away from them whenever possible. If you don't get rid of them first, they will do their best to get you out of the game.
In your business, there are certain types of prospects and customers you should immediately eliminate from your life permanently. You will come across some prospects who will never buy anything from you. Moreover, they will waste your time and energy by asking stupid questions, complaining about stupid things, and always trying to get something for nothing out of you every chance they get. When discovered, they should be removed from your mailing lists, your database, and your life.
You will also come across some paid customers who will: - make a purchase from you and immediately demand a refund. - ask you stupid "what-if" type questions without ever using the product or applying what you shared through the products. - be blatantly rude, obnoxious, offensive, and get extremely upset over little things. - will find reasons to complain no matter how much you try to help them. When discovered, you should immediately offer a refund, remove them from all your mailing lists, flag them on your database so they're never allowed to do business with you again, and have as little to do with them as possible in the future. Contrary to what most people will tell you, the customer is NOT always right. This may be hard for you to swallow especially if you've been raised with traditional values and beliefs. But it is very important for you to understand and accept this. Successful people will go out of their way to provide value and service to their customers. They will also do everything in their power to remedy an unpleasant situation. And you should do the same. However, successful people also value their time and energy very much. And so should you. Therefore, those customers who exist only to make your life miserable, despite your best efforts, are not worth your time or your thoughts. You should remove them from your life quickly and permanently! There are some business people who will even go as far as offending the non-targeted prospects, through their sales materials, on purpose to ensure that those prospects never step into their lives to begin with. I don't practice this strategy but I can certainly understand why some people would use this tactic. Remember, if you try to please everyone, you will please no one. Be true to yourself, believe in your products, offer the best service you possibly can, and deal with only those people who are worth your time. Not everyone will like your products. And that's okay! Your job is to create the best products that you can and then, focus only on those people who want your products!
Be Open To Feedback / Criticism Getting rid of the draining people is good. However, don't discard the advice or criticisms of people simply because you don't like them personally or don't agree with them 100%. There's a big difference between the two. You can learn from everyone, whether your like them personally or not. As you walk through life, you will surely run into people that will have different opinions, likes & dislikes, views, beliefs, and methodologies. That's ok. We don't all have to agree on everything and believe all the same things. But, you could still learn from them. Remember, the successful person is open to everything and is driven to gathering every piece of information that could be useful. You should do the same. Be open to feedback and criticism from everyone: your customers, prospects, family, friends, competitors, everyone! And don't take any of it personally. You don't even have to use or implement everything. But be willing to listen. Then, decide if that information could be helpful to you. Evaluate it, give it some thought, and then decide what to do with it. It's a good idea to imagine the advice or criticism coming from someone who cares about you. That way, you'll at least stop to give it the attention it deserves. Don't dismiss everything someone says simply because you don't share the same views and beliefs. Examine it first. Learn to listen without bias or pre-judgment. Then, see if it helps or hinders your system. And then, choose to adopt or discard it.
Prioritize It is much more productive to be in action than in reaction. In order to do this, you have to be able to differentiate between emergencies and priorities. In most cases, when you are focused on your priorities, the emergencies tend to stay at a minimum. If it not broken, improve on it anyway! We live in a society where cures are more common then preventive measures. In order to be successful, you have to change that. When you focus on your highest priorities, you will usually solve many problems before they ever become problems. For example, if driving is a big part of your day, one of your priorities should be to regularly keep your vehicle tuned up and well maintained. Don't wait for it to break down before you attend to it. If you do, it is highly likely that it will breakdown on you during your most important journey. That's just how life seems to work sometimes. So, be prepared. Determine what your highest priorities are and focus on them with absolute commitment. Create a list of your most important goals and tasks. Those things that you value most and would like to accomplish the most. Then designate a number or letter to each one in order of importance, not urgency. (You can use 1,2,3 or A,B,C - 1 or A being the most important.) Then, check each one off in the order of importance as you complete each task. Remember, prioritize your tasks in order of importance, not urgency. Do what's most important to you first. If you continue to run around putting out fires, there will only be more fires to put out tomorrow. If you get thrown off track, which you sometimes will due to unplanned events, take care of it and then get back on schedule to following your priorities. There will always be things to do. You might as well decide now which are most important and spend your time and energy on those things.
Get In The Driver's Seat: Controlling Your Mental States You’ve learned earlier that your focus is extremely important. So are your mental states and how you feel on a consistent basis. Being prepared is always better than not being prepared. Pretty simple, right? It's easy to be prepared externally for events and incidents; you simply gather up intelligence and set up protective systems in place. But, being prepared internally, i.e. emotionally, is quite another story. Yet, it is just as important, and usually more so, to be emotionally and mentally prepared for what's to come. So, how do you prepare yourself emotionally and mentally? You simply practice and rehearse. To create any habit, emotional state, or reaction, you have to rehearse it. Faith, optimism, self-discipline and any other such state of mind, can be attained by the simple process of practice and rehearsal. The key point to realize here is that every emotion and mental state you go through follows a recipe or a ritual. When you find out what your internal process is in order to get to a certain mental state, you can create and evoke that state at will. For example, if you tend to get depressed whenever even the tiniest thing goes wrong, you need to train yourself to react differently to that particular situation. You can do this by first noticing what your internal process is for feeling depressed. Notice what you do when you're depressed. Find out every detail of your process so that you can explain it to someone else and teach them to get just as depressed as you. Notice what you're focusing on. Notice what kind of mental pictures you're creating, and what kind of changes occur in your body i.e. posture, facial expression, breathing, etc. Here's an example of the internal process one would go through in order to get depressed. To get depressed, the person would have to: - blow the problem out of proportion i.e. create a mountain out of a mole hill, and focus on the worst-case scenario
- focus on everything bad and wrong with everything in the world and all around you. - create vivid and gigantic mental pictures of everything bad and wrong that you're focused on - change your body to match your focus i.e. slouch over, look down, carry a depressed expression on your face, take shallow breaths, and so on.
Now that you've found out what the internal process, or ritual, is for getting depressed, you know how to undo it! To step out of the state of depression, you just have to: - change your mental focus from the negative to positive, visualize and magnify the intensity of new, positive, solution-based mental pictures, and rapidly change your body i.e. posture, breathing, facial expression, etc. You will realize something very important now...that you can shift from one mental state or emotion to another just by thinking it. This is a very powerful piece of information!
You can shift from one state or emotion to another just by thinking about it!
That means, as soon as you decide on an outcome, you can immediately shift your focus, state and emotion to manifest the desired state or emotion. How useful do you think that would be?
Exercise: Practice moving yourself from one mental state to another, and from one emotion to another. Use the examples above to shift your mental and emotional states from one extreme to the next. Example: Go from a sad state to a happy one, a frustrated one to an optimistic one, a procrastinating one to an totally motivated one, a nervous one to a confident one, etc. The more you practice moving from one range to the other, the more prepared you will be, and the easier it will become for you to shift out of a negative state/emotion into a positive
one when it counts. Whenever you're caught in a negative state or emotion (anger, frustration, fear, boredom, etc.), just take a moment to step out of yourself and watch yourself from the outside. What changes would you immediately want to make to produce better results and outcomes?
Make Good Decisions The ability to have clarity and make good decisions is crucial to your success. It is very important to know why you're making each decision and how it benefits or hinders your goals. You might as well place the odds in your favor by thinking things through and planning out a strategy. Use your knowledge base, your experience, and good judgement. Before making each decision, ask yourself, "Is this in line with what I want to accomplish?" Keep your original outcome in mind and let that dictate your decisions. For example, I have worked with a lot of marketers and product developers. I see many who write a new article every week. I also see some who create a new product each week! That's great - if it's helping you get to your outcome more efficiently and effectively! If you're able to promote those articles and products effectively, that's good. If each new article and product puts more profits into your pockets, great. If not, you need to focus more on promotion than production. The same goes for taking on new projects or making deals with other business. If any of your projects or joint venture deals distract you from your main goals, if they don't support or align with your main outcome, you need to think twice before taking those on. You have picked a niche, you have decided on the kind of life you want to design. Each decision you make from here on, each project or deal you take on, should fit in with the life you want to design. Also, stop and ask yourself if you're making certain decisions for popularity or for profit. Is it to brush your ego or to help your business? Then, make the decisions which will support your goals. Check Your Assumptions At The Door Are your decisions based on any assumptions? If so, how can you be sure that these assumptions are true? For example. Some business swear by classified ads. Others are convinced they don't
work. Who are you going to agree with, and why? What proof do you have that your assumption is true or factual? Also ask yourself what kind of work that assumption is allowing you to avoid. What is your reason for making and going with that assumption? Are your assumptions backed up by facts? Are they supporting your goals or are they keeping you from doing important tasks?
Solving Problems People usually run into a problem and stop everything. They usually tend to magnify the problem or situation. We tend to exaggerate the negative stuff and blow it out of proportion. It's another common habit. Remember, you have the power to focus on what you want! Don't let the situation, environment or challenge control you. I'm not saying that you shouldn't acknowledge what's in front of you. That would be stupid. So, see what is in front of you. But don't see it worse than it is. And definitely don't continue to run it in your mind over and over and over again. There's no need for that. Once you're presented with a problem, acknowledge it and then shift your focus to finding a solution. Ask yourself "How can I change this? How can I solve this? How can I make it better? What can I learn from it so I can avoid this from happening again?" Spend most of your time on the solution and as little time as possible on the problem.
Repair Verses Design We live in a society that responds more to something that breaks. We believe more in cures than in prevention. That's not how successful people think. Let's say that your car breaks down and you're faced with a problem. After you've isolated the specific problem, you get in there and you fix it. But...while you're in there, covered in grease, wouldn't it make sense to look for other
things that may cause a problem down the road and fix those as well? You know it would. Yet most of us don't operate this way. We wait for something to break down before we pay attention to it. Instead of fixing only what's wrong, we need to instead improve the overall design! Not only will doing so increase overall performance, it will also minimize future problems, and thus require less repairs. The same is true for anything else in life, including your mindset and your business. When you start designing your strategies and plans, strive to design the absolute best you can possibly do. Don't settle for the bare minimum. Another problem with 'repairing' is, when you come from 'repair,' you have to start by fixating on the 'problem.' You spend most of your time focusing on the problem. When you come from 'repair', you ask questions like 'What are my problems? What are my weaknesses?' You're focused on the problems! Instead, when you think 'design', you ask questions like 'What are my strengths? What can I improve upon more? What new beliefs can I create and install?' You focus on creativity and solutions.
Instead of focusing on things you can fix and repair, you can focus on how you can improve and enhance the overall design of your strategy so there are less things to fix in the future! Continue to improve the overall design of your strategy and you'll dramatically minimize, if not eliminate completely, repairs.
Keep Your Vehicle Tuned Up You're smart enough to know how important a role health plays in success. I don't have to convince you of that. Your body was not given to you by accident. It's there for a reason. It serves a purpose. It's your vehicle. It's what you use to turn thoughts into actions and actions into reality! I don't want to turn this into a health manual but suffice it to say that taking care of your
physical body, your health, is of utmost importance. A weak and unhealthy body will throw your system off balance which will result in an imbalance all around - including your brain, your mind, and consequently your thoughts. Your potential - what you're capable of - will be severely minimized. You don't want that. You deserve better. A healthy body will result in a healthy mind. They work together. They depend on each other. One cannot live without the other. So, take care of your health. Here are just a few tips to do that quickly, without making any sacrifices: There are many different diets out there. Each one requires that you eliminate something from your diet completely, be it carbohydrates, protein, sugar or whatever. My philosophy, if you haven't yet figured it out, is to have balance. Anything in excess is bad. Eating a healthy balance of lean meats, some dairy, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables will usually work just fine. (Although, personally I try not to overdo dairy and meats.) Drink lots of fluids (water, juices, etc.) And...take your vitamins! Whenever possible... Cut down on processed and packaged foods and snacks. Cut down on simple carbohydrates (white flour products) and sugars. Cut down on alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and other related substances. Keep fats to a moderate amount.
Graze throughout the day by having 4 to 6 smaller meals and snacks instead of having 3 large meals per day.
And exercise! Your body was designed for movement. For action. You don't have to camp out at the gym, or prepare for the triathlon. But you do need to do some form of exercise regularly. A brisk 20-30 minute walk, 3 - 5 times a day will do. If you enjoy a certain sport or physical activity, do that. When you enjoy the process, you'll do it more often. If it gets boring, just switch to another activity.
It's your body. You get to decide how you want it to affect your life, and your success. Do keep in mind that the body you have is the only one you've got. And your brain is a part of that body, which is also the only one you've got. 'Nuff said.
Keep It Light! We do our best work when we're relaxed and having fun. When you do that, you're also much more open to new ideas, options, and feedback. And your ability to learn increases dramatically when you're relaxed and enjoying the process. It's equally as important to note that when you're stressed, rigid, stern, etc. you don't do your best work and you don't enjoy your work. The overall quality and creativity of your work suffers. I watch at least 30 minutes of one of my favorite comedy shows every single day. Why, you ask? Because it allows me to stay in a light, somewhat playful, fun, and relaxed mood. When you keep the energy light and relaxed, creativity can flow through you freely. And work doesn't seem like work. It actually becomes fun! Do whatever you need to create a more relaxed, fun and light work environment. Think of ways to create the right mood. Listen to your favorite music. Choose your favorite colors, scents, etc. to get you in the right mood. This is why it is so important to always start by doing what you love. Everything depends on it. Everything builds up from it. Your quality and creativity improves when you love doing what you're doing. Keep it light and relaxed. Enjoy the process. Make it fun! Of course, there are certain tasks that require you to be able to focus better and cut off distractions. That's fine when needed. And, if you're the type that enjoys a deadline-driven environment, then so be it. Personally, I've found that a light, relaxed environment works best for most people. The key is to enjoy what you do, and to look forward to doing it tomorrow.
Redefine Failure Most of us make it way too easy for ourselves to fail. Think about it... Failure is not tangible. There is no instrument to measure failure. Failure is just a state of mind. It depends entirely on the individual. And everyone defines failure differently. One person can decide he's a failure if he doesn't give his best. Another person can decide he's a failure just because he tried something once and didn't quite get the result he was after. Which one of the two do you think will succeed in life? Obviously, the first one. If you don't get the result you were after, you can either decide that you've failed and quit, or you can learn from what you did incorrectly and do it better the next time around. How easy are you making it for yourself to fail? Imagine that you are traveling from City A to City B, to visit someone, and the trip would take you about an hour. Let's say that you did everything right and got to the right city, the right town, and even the right block! But then, you made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up somewhere else about 2 minutes away from your destination. What would you do now? Would you go all the way back to City A and then start over? (Remember, it's an hour drive each way.) Or would you simply check your map/directions, figure out what you did wrong and adjust accordingly? (Since you're only 2 minutes away from your destination.) Common sense will dictate that you check your map, see what you did wrong and adjust accordingly. Yet, when it comes to other areas in life, people keep going back to point A and starting over. Or worse, they just quit when they're only minutes or inches away from their goals. If you came really close to achieving your goals, wouldn't it make more sense to say that you're 99% successful, instead of saying you're a 100% failure?
You can never fail; You can only learn what doesn't work!
It is said that we learn from our mistakes. Wouldn't it make sense to make a lot more mistakes so we can learn more quickly? Of course it would. Listen...each time you do something wrong, it only gets you one step closer to doing it right! Each time you think you've "failed," you're really just another step closer to your goals. So, get busy. There is no such thing as failure! You can never fail at doing anything. You can only learn what doesn't work so you can try another approach. If you feel you're a failure every time something doesn't work. Change that. Instead adopt a belief that says, "I can only fail if I give up completely and not learn anything from my mistakes." Make it really difficult for yourself to fail. Change your definition of failure so that it's almost impossible for you to fail! Failure to me is non-existent. It's a made-up word. I don't buy into it. That's my belief and I'm sticking to it. :-)
Enjoy Success and Wealth! You've learned that we want to create more of the things that give us pleasure and less of the things that bring us pain. If you want to continue to be successful, you have to associate "pleasure" to being successful so that your mind will help create more successes for you. Whenever you experience success, no matter how small, stop and acknowledge it. Congratulate yourself. Reward yourself! Link as much pleasure to success as you possibly can. Condition your brain to enjoy success, no matter how small it is. And when you start making money, take some of that money and enjoy it! Spend it on pleasurable things and pleasurable experiences. Enjoy the wealth that you're creating! Have fun with it so that your mind will help you create more wealth! And let's be honest here, what's the fun in making money when you can't enjoy it? There's no point to it. So, do what you enjoy. Spend more time with your loved ones. Visit the people and places that you'd like. Buy the things that you want. Help others to improve the quality of their lives. Enjoy your life! Remember, successful people are not successful because they have more money. They are successful because they are fulfilled with the life they have created. They have more time to enjoy life. They have more money to enjoy life with! If you're not happy, if you're not having fun with the wealth you've created, you're not really successful.
Spend Time With Your Loved Ones Some of us get so caught up in trying to be successful that we don't make time for the people that matter, the people that we love and care about and the people that care about and love us. Many have learned this lesson the hard way, by losing the people that mattered most in their lives. Again, you can learn from their mistakes instead of repeating them yourself.
Take time out to spend with the people who are important to you. This includes immediate family, relatives, spouse/significant other, friends, neighbors, pets, etc. Do not put this off till later. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. And no one knows who'll be here tomorrow and who won't. So, make it a priority to spend time with the people that matter. It's also interesting to realize that most of us want to be more successful so that we can have more time to spend and share with our loves ones anyway! So, when you're given the opportunity to spend time with them even when you're not as successful as you'd like to be yet, heck, that's gotta be a bonus! You're getting to do what you'd like to do more of anyway! You don't have to be making a certain amount of money or attain a certain level of success to be able to enjoy being around the people you care about. You can do that right now! So, do that. In the end, it's the people and the positive relationships we have that define who we are and how successful we are. The rest of it is just icing on the cake.
Where To Next Listen, you know what to do. Now, it’s all about doing it. Unfortunately, most people won’t take action, no matter how many books they read. Don't cheat yourself out of the quality of life you deserve! Don't cheat your loved ones out of the kind of life you can design for them. Success and financial independence is waiting for you. It can be yours. But it won’t come to you. You have to go out and get it. Oh, I didn't tell you. I never drove to Vegas. I flew instead  I still had to pay attention to a few details but, along the way, I decided that I wanted to get there a lot quicker. And, flying was a heck of a lot quicker than driving. You see, life is the same way. Why not fly, instead of driving, and get there much quicker with much less effort! Of course, there are times when you want to enjoy a road trip. But, when it comes to getting rich, most people would rather fly than drive. ;-)
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